This webzine is online since August 2010 and is completely dedicated to Electronic Music (EM) identified as the Berlin School style and its derived. You will find interviews but mostly reviews of ambient, sequenced and symphonic EM with a glimpse on other related genres. You have questions or want your music to be reviewed? Please read the 123 FAQ section attentively. Bear in mind the main purpose of this Blog. So welcome in and I hope it will guide you into the wonderful world of EM.

mercredi 29 juin 2016

“A great Berlin School album, Impulse Response is also the most accessible one of the Magnetron catalogue”

1 Dirac Delta 18:462 Tessellation 22:423 Intermodulation 14:094 Convergence 17:05Magnetron Music (DDL 72:46) ****(Vintage Berlin School)A distant wave of sounds (the stories in EM begin generally like that) spreads a kind of sigh which snivels in a rather cosmic universe. Chords resound on the horizon while hummings tint the musicality of these arpeggios of a veil as so melancholic as these musical sobs which decorate the ambiospherical introduction of "Dirac Delta" of a cosmic-orchestral approach. A line of bass sequences makes its keys skip and fall down one after the other in a pattern of ambient rhythm where our fingers hammer delicately the pace. The atmospheres stay of silk, covering this onset of rhythm of a meditative shroud. Other keys make sequenced capers while the atmospheres generate multilayers of synth with scents as much of mist than cosmic dusts. Little by little "Dirac Delta" organizes its embellishment of rhythm with other elements which make their appearances around the 9th minute while the synth which embroidered these tearful harmonies of the introduction make them sing now. And like this stories of EM conceived on the model of improvisation, "Dirac Delta" switches off in its slow final its rhythm and its atmospheres. Composed, performed and recorded under the sign of improvision on the day of May 30th, 2016, “Impulse Response” has nevertheless no appearances of it. This 6th album of Magnetron goes straight to beats than Photonic Waves by proposing also 4 other long structures sat this time on elements of rhythm knotted well around the sequenced model of Berlin School which progress in these ambiences tinted of elements as well psychotronic than cosmic and/or orchestral. As for me, it's the most beautiful album, to say the least the most accessible, of Magnetron. Evolutionary and magnetic, "Tessellation" begins with a strong storm of woosh which conceal threatening hummings. The envelope of sounds is adequate with effects which enchant the hearing and command that we increase the volume of our amplifier. On this matter, the listening of “Impulse Response” is as much pleasant with a Hi-Fi system than with good earphones. A synth spreads a veil of gloom with beautiful aphasic songs, whereas another one generates more musicality with beautiful layers of cosmic violin which adopt these amorphous cosmic dances of Software and whereas another one continuous to crumble some quirky electronic tones. Pulsations threaten these atmospheres with steps of wolf at around the 7th minute. Layers of voices try to charm this approach of rhythm which accelerates quietly the speed of its repetitive loops. The series of sequences is charmingly imperfect and draws a rhythm pierced of small breaches which sound as in a mixture of Poland and Tangram. And if the rhythm seduces by its approach of hypnotic awkward kicks, the synths are not outdone by sweet floating harmonies which resist to this desire to listen to Logos. This structure imposes more and more its hold of our senses with the arrival of electronic percussions which anchors the rhythmic solidity of "Tessellation" in its broth of effects and harmonious layers of its ambiences. Speaking of Tangerine Dream, the structure of the sequences of "Intermodulation" moves us unmistakably closer to that of the mythical German trio. The keys hiccup of spasmodic jolts which go and come between the membranes of layers perfumed of metallic drizzle and rippling mists. Crystal clear arpeggios draw lines of evasive harmonies while the percussions add more velocity to this very TD rhythm which covers itself of synth layers in contrasted tints and tones, among which those of the delicious scents of Create. Rhythm on ambiences of pure Berlin School, "Intermodulation" is indisputably one of the most accessible titles of the Magnetron catalog. And with its synth layers which float such as the tears of spectres over a battlefields, "Convergence" makes competition to "Intermodulation". If the rhythm is bubbling as much as an army of keys which skip on the spot, the fluty perfumes of synths is the first object of seduction on this title which ends “Impulse Response” beautifully. The cosmic-orchestral layers are just as much mesmerizing there, we can even hear layers of old organ, while the other keys which bring more transparency to the ambient rhythm give more latitude to the synths which spread some soft elegiac solos, a little as astral trumpets over a pound of swarming elements of a static rhythm.I really liked this “Impulse Response” of Magnetron. Steve Humphries and Xan Alexander bring us back at that time of the revival of the Berlin School made in England with long minimalist structures charmed by subtle imperfections in loops, fascinating even more the discovery of these minimalist approaches which always give the necessary space to decorated well each of the music minutes. The essences of Create and Xan Alexander merge with a very beautiful complicity in this album which aims to be certainly the most accessible of the Magnetron catalog. A must for the fans of Berlin School and one of the beautiful albums of this kind to be release in 2016.Sylvain Lupari (June 29th, 2016)

lundi 27 juin 2016

“Dark ambient music livened up by impulses of layers or of sequences, Lifecycle seems to sound like a missing link between the first years of Klaus Schulze and those of Ramp and/or Mr Parsick”

1 Anteroom 5:062 The Choice 6:173 Open the Door 3:454 Life Edge 6:325 Mind Transit 4:326 Lifecycle 6:147 Burned Lands 8:348 Alone Again 7:399 Anteroom 2 (Parallel World) 6:05Kryfels Music(CD 55:07)****(Dark ambient music)I always attack a work of ambient music with a lot of detachment. I put myself the nose in a book and I let myself absorb by this sonic void which invades my senses, such these big waves of ink coming from a huge octopus. If the reading takes place without my ears rise up, I know that the music is soft, quiet and linear... It's when my eyes get loose from words of a writer (I read at the moment Faims from Patrick Sénécal) to connect in my ears that my senses have detected something impressive. A little like here with "Life Edge".“Lifecycle” is the 3rd album from the French synth wizard Kryfels. A quieter album, and especially darker, than Parsec where revealed us to be another follower of the primary years Klaus Schulze. And if the influence of Schulzealways remains so present in the movements of ambiences of Kryfels, his music here inhales another perfume. That of occultism with strange sound shadows which eventually steal our eyes of the nothingness to fix them where Kryfels wants to bring us.An austere shade rises of our loudspeakers. Spreading a sinister wave, it divides into many lines of which the sibylline colors also reveal abstruse chants. Multiplying the layers of dark ambiences, "Anteroom" invades our senses with perfumes of ether and invites us to the 9 sound chapters of “Lifecycle” with a very ambient and dark approach where chthonian murmurs and hollow winds harmonize their hold on our sense of hearing. The movements get organized around the last album of Kryfels with the slow arches, always very Mephistophelian, of "The Choice" and its sepulchral waves moved by layers of organ and beatings of steel doors. That makes very vintage ambient. "Open the Door" is dragged a little in these dead movements but with a halo of luminosity which irradiates such as voices of spectres buried in slow and sinuous oscillations of a vampiric bass line which will mislay a beautiful spectral melody towards the finale. We are always in the dark corridors of the fissures, even if the power of tones and the muffled movements of rhythm liven up little by little the moods of “Lifecycle”. "Life Edge" leads the charge with a storm of woosh which sweeps the sonic horizons. A delicate movement of sequences makes twinkle its keys which dance in a figure of rhythm more harmonious than rhythmic. Bright veils caress this chant of sequences livened by some beautiful astral embraces whereas "Life Edge" swirls as a xylophone in the form of a carousel. The sounds get more acute and the shadows more scarlet, while are grafted large groans of an chloroformed layer which little by little switches off the magic of the twinkling carillons of "Life Edge"."Mind Transit" proposes an ambient rhythm knotted around staccato effects from which the echoes swirl slightly on the sonic carpet of synth waves with very analog tones. One would say vapors of old Schulzian organ. The title-track is a real tribute to these ambient rhythms of the nice time of Klaus Schulze. Even if Richard Raffaillac tries to get rid of the influences of the German master, we cannot avoid the parallels, especially with "Lifecycle" and its somber rhythm which rises and falls, pursued by vapors of ether and of old organ. That's very beautiful and that brings us to the period of Timewind. The same goes for the very ambient "Burned Lands" which brings us near the nebulosity with a thick cloud of spectral waves which float in a mass of harmonies of robots-monks humming into deep gutters of which the narrow and willowy corridors seem to connect with cosmos. The touching layers which decorate the finale give shivers to the soul. There are dusts of rhythm of "Life Edge" in "Alone Again". Less circular, the structure is parading in fine limpid jerks and is eaten away from everywhere by the powerful woosh, by greedy hollow winds and by shouts of starving spectres. These ambiences are hot, like a storm of cracklings which attack the tolerance of the sense of hearing to analyze the abrasivity of tones. Gradually the calm settles down with soothing layers haloed by an aura of old organ. It's a sonic cataclysm avoided! "Anteroom 2 (Parallel World)" brings us in the somber corridors of dark ambient music worthy of the universe of Baki Sirros, the soul behind Parallel Worlds, where Kryfels attaches finely these missing links between the first years of Klaus Schulze and those of the last years when the dark ambient music spatters as in the most beautiful moments of

samedi 25 juin 2016

“Jules Verne - Around The World In 80 Minutes is an ambitious sound fresco which we have still never heard and which brings us back to these big cinematographic”

1 Phileas Foggs Dream 4:222 Around the World in 80 Days 6:243 Across the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt 6:564 Steamer to Bombay 10:115 To Calcutta by Elephant 7:426 From Calcutta to Hong Kong 8:317 From Yokohama to San Francisco 8:328 Across the Atlantic Ocean 9:359 It's Off to Liverpool! 3:1310 It Seems the Wager has Been Lost 7:3111 The Triumph 6:59Groove|GR-224 (CD 78:58)****(Cinematographic EM)As with Jules Verne Forever, writing a chronicle about this last album of Mythos is not an easy thing. Here, there is nothing as somewhere else, set apartJules Verne Forever. A wave of sound spreads its reverberation which languishes in groans of didgeridoo. Tribal voices hoot whereas a line of sequences makes oscillate its keys in fine kicks of horse and that percussions spring out such as jets of blowpipe. The rhythm of "Phileas Foggs Dream", as well as all the universe of “Jules Verne - Around The World In 80 Minutes” is rather difficult to describe. Sometimes it oscillates as a big boa and other times it drums as a pony taken in ice. Without forgetting these moments of transitions which facilitate the passage of the one towards the other one. But each time, it's forged in sequences and percussions as organic as electronic with a harmonious portion which remains stuck on eardrums. This harmonious texture is moreover just as much fascinating with a caricatural approach which oversize a very tribal bucolic sound envelope in a sound fresco which brings us back to these big cinematographic deployments where traders of fairs and acrobats of circus walked around in crowded streets. Here we are, and it's completely identical to the 80 minutes of this other Stephan Kaske's odyssey, at the heart of the universe of Jules Verne. Here, everything is as much attractive than difficult to seize. In fact “Jules Verne - Around The World In 80 Minutes” is an album to which one becomes accustomed rather with difficulty so much the sound texture which extricates from it is as much audacious than unpredictable.The rather Tibetan opening of the title-track leads us in a sound universe which challenges constantly the imagination. The ringing of bells is swallowed by a structure of rhythm which sparkles with its thousand pulsations and with the brilliance of these bells in order to crawl finally like shadows of vampires before flying on a more fluid phase where dramatic and imaginary elements are in confrontation in a baroque structure filled with sound effects and with bucolic elements as realistic as these grandiloquent movies inspired by the world of Jules Verne. "Around The World In 80 Minutes" throws itself into "Across the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt". The rhythm is very electronic with a meshing of sequences, filled of criss-crossed acrobatics, and of percussions which click and resound such as wooden clogs. The sequences are feeding as much the fire of the percussions as the thin lines of harmonies twittered by absent voices and by effects of flutes. Every title here are tied in a long mosaic of 80 minutes with structures which are similar while being very distinct. So the structure of rhythm in "Steamer to Bombay" is a fascinating symbiosis of the first 3 titles but in a more hopping envelope. It's indisputably the first crush in “Jules Verne - Around The World In 80 Minutes” with this rhythm which cavorts cheerfully under the bites of the low sequences and the grapeshots of percussions so much shining than attractive. The effects of flutes and gurgling sound are built around so many mysteries as charms. "To Calcutta by Elephant" pursues the quest of elegance with an indefinable structure decorated with beautiful harmonies extirpated of a synth always in creative mode. The rhythm is ambivalent and enslaved in an atmosphere of jungle filled with dramatic effects. "From Calcutta to Hong-Kong" follows with a structure always also batrachian but in an envelope of more ethereal oriental melody. A chinese violin and a mandarin flute accompanies the hatching of a green and abundant musical fauna while the track undertakes a more dramatic tangent with good harmonious oriental glassfuls. "From Yokohama to San Francisco" adopts the shape of a slow tempo, a little in a nuptial march mode, adorned of nice moments of harmonies of which the effects of jerks and of whirlings give the impression of hearing the fall of stars, some are falling with nice melodies here, on a boreal night. We enter into the quieter core of Mythos' last opus. Lighter but just as much mysterious, "Across the Atlantic Ocean" proposes a peaceful hopping structure with a mixture of tones in the movement of the sequences which offers a delicious crescendo between its phases of ambient moments. Very charming, the synth offers two lines of fluty harmonies which skip in unison with the delicate rhythmic growth of "Across the Atlantic Ocean". "It's Off to Liverpool!" is the 2nd track of “Jules Verne - Around The World In 80 Minutes” to propose a more electronic rock structure loaded of Tangerine Dream's perfumes in their Jive era. It's a good title with a circular melody which swirls in electronic effects very near of Legend. "It Seems the Wager has Been Lost" is as much lighter than a Jazz music of a night club where some last lovers look each other with desire. The tribal approach which hides behind this curtain of romance offers a completely delicious cachet to this music which discloses its finale in jolts of cascades. "The Triumph" ends this other impressive work of Mythos with a magnificent melodious approach where effects of voices caress a beautiful movement knotted in the limpidity of a rivulet of sequences. The title evolves afterward in a beautiful down-tempo and reminds me enormously these attractive movements tinted of romance which decorated the music of Thierry Fervant or yet Walter Christian Rothe in his majestic Let The Night Last Forever. Fascinating and audacious! Such are the first words which come in mind to describe better the universe of this last Mythos opus. Still surfing on the dreams and the fantasies of our childhoods, closely linked to the tales of Jules Verne, Stephan Kaske always succeeds gallantly this audacious bet to put in music the tales and the visions of the famous writer from Nantes. And as indicates it so well Mythos, you have to give yourself the chance to listen to the album as a whole, with good earphones, in order to be taken by the waves of his last creation. And that comes rather fast.Sylvain Lupari (June 25th, 2016)